OSLO (Reuters) – A cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may
help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the island, scientists
said on Monday.

A report, reconstructing temperatures by examining lake sediment cores
in west Greenland dating back 5,600 years, also indicated that earlier,
pre-historic settlers also had to contend with vicious swings in
climate on icy Greenland.

"There is a definite cooling trend in the region right before the Norse
disappear," said William D'Andrea of Brown University, the lead author
of the study in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.

Fox, I am not sure about Greenland. But, those living in Scandinavia are the true descendants of the Vikings. I have 2 Norwegian sides traced way back to the the 12th century. The Telemark genealogy book includes allot of stories and history on famines, economy, etc... Several times weather is mentioned in the book and it always concerned about, how cold the winters were and the consequences of the cold, famines, etc....

The climate changing was integral to the demise of the colony. What was more important, though was the lack of information regarding conditions. They showed up during nice weather and ASSUMED that conditions in Greenland were like those in their former home. They found out that they were mistaken. It would have been wise to check on conditions at various times of the year, to see if conditions were the same as home or different.

May not have literally killed off the whole race, my great grandfather told me "our people were Vikings." Do I believe that, of course...I believed everything that man told me.
They had ships so they would have been able to relocate. Hope some survived and Great Grandpa Tom, who was my best friend, told me the truth.

The "cold snap" that wiped-out the Greenland Coastal Viking settlements was caused by a Global temperature decline,called "The Little Ice Age". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

These Viking settlements were surviving by a combination of raising grazing animals,like sheep & goats and fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.As the temperatures plunged,the pastures died off & the fish populations moved further south.The Greenland Viking settlements were forced to move elsewhere.The remaining settlers ended-up dying of the cold & starvation.

I don't remember where all of it came from, other than my search about our family's past. I do remember much of what I learned came from a book called "The Vikings," it had a red cover and was six or seven hundred pages but I can't remember the author's name. I believe it was from a university press.

Another thing I found interesting was that the Swedes were called the "Rus" back then, and their social organizational skills were imported to the barbarian regions to their south and east, giving birth to a country called Russia.

Yup, Bergen to be exact. My grandfather came over in 1917 by himself at the age of eight. He worked for the family that "sponsored" him, until he could get out and wound up with a pretty nice farm. He lived into his nineties so I got to know him for quite a few years.

Are you in Wisconsin Tea? Are you a member of Sons Of Norway? Have you been over there?.... My Dad's mom's side was from around Stavanger. Another grandparent came from Tinn, Telemark and a third set of Grandparents immigrated from Gran, Hadeland which is over by Oslo. They all came over in the 1800s. Norwegians were big on encouraging and sponsoring others from Norway.

Yes, I'm in Wisconsin. Don't belong to the Sons of Norway and have never made the trip but I'd like to some day. I'd like to retire to live on a boat and spend a few years in Europe because I've not been out of the US much in my life. I'd like to sail into the same harbor Grandpa left 100 years later, which is only 6 years away. It amazes me what that generation saw in their lives, Grandpa plowed fields with horses and my baby sister worked on the package that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope! That's a lot of progress for such a short time, the changes we're seeing are probably just as major, but they're less visible so we don't notice them as much.

Have you been to Norway?

The other side of my family is English/Irish (with small bits of nearly everything else) and my sister has traced them back to the 1100's so there are some things I'd like to see there too. Two of them came on the Mayflower so they've been here just a bit longer than the Norwegian side, lol! That side of the family has been in every war we've ever had and two of their signatures are on our Declaration of Independence according to sis. Some of those white guys dressed like Indians at Boston harbor may have been my relatives! Family lore says they were, but I'm not aware of any proof.

Are you familiar with ...

Yes, I'm in Wisconsin. Don't belong to the Sons of Norway and have never made the trip but I'd like to some day. I'd like to retire to live on a boat and spend a few years in Europe because I've not been out of the US much in my life. I'd like to sail into the same harbor Grandpa left 100 years later, which is only 6 years away. It amazes me what that generation saw in their lives, Grandpa plowed fields with horses and my baby sister worked on the package that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope! That's a lot of progress for such a short time, the changes we're seeing are probably just as major, but they're less visible so we don't notice them as much.

Have you been to Norway?

The other side of my family is English/Irish (with small bits of nearly everything else) and my sister has traced them back to the 1100's so there are some things I'd like to see there too. Two of them came on the Mayflower so they've been here just a bit longer than the Norwegian side, lol! That side of the family has been in every war we've ever had and two of their signatures are on our Declaration of Independence according to sis. Some of those white guys dressed like Indians at Boston harbor may have been my relatives! Family lore says they were, but I'm not aware of any proof.

Are you familiar with Norwegian proverbs? There is one that translates roughly "It's good enough." meaning that one should enjoy what they have and not become a slave to what they want. I read it once long ago and haven't been able to find it again, but I'd like it to be the name of my boat.

What part of WI did your Norwegians settle in? If you get a chance Sons of Norway is an excellent group. They also have trips to Norway going on all the time. Haven't been to Norway but planning to someday. Every other year relatives from Telemark use to come here and likewise the following year relatives here would go to Norway to visit. Mom did that trip about 5 years ago. So many have died that tradition seems to have died.... Hey, I will put on a 'new yet old' AV picture. Its of Snowshoe Thompson who immigrated from Norway. Long story but he is famous for being the first long distance cross country skier mail carrier in the west Sierra. He was youngest brother to my ggg Grandfather who came from Tinn, Telemark.... Mt. Horeb, Blanchardville, Argyle, WI are 3 places our Norwegians settled at. Dad's side is more north around Canton and Rice Lake.

I am not familiar with the Norwegian proverbs. Will see what I can find on Norwegian proverbs. Nice name for a boat.

Wow, the Mayflower, thats neat! I married an Irish guy, thats as close to Irish as I get! Down around Darlington, WI, where mom's English side is from, there is a large population of Irish. One of my best friends there is an O'Brien. Matter fact I do our genealogies and I found that some of her ancestors were on the same boat my ancestors from England were on.

Technology has boomed in the last 100 years. Our pioneers would be amazed!!

The world is a very small place isn't it? I used to go to Yellowstone Lake camping and fishing all the time. Beautiful place, my son and grandkids live in Monroe, not too far from Argyle, which is where my ex and I lived for about a year.. I'm just a bit east of Madison.

My relatives settled in Irma, just north of Tomahawk. The original family homestead is now the Lincoln Hills School for boys, there was a bog behind the barn with quicksand my Great Uncles John and Morris lost two draft horses in, hope they keep the kids away from that!

Now I want my Aunt Lena's cake and cookies, and Leftsa! She used a woodstove and the smell of that house is one of my favorite childhood memories! They can keep the Lutifisk though, that was a dumb thing to do with perfectly good fish! LOL!

It is a small world, Norwegians almost always settled together in specific areas.... Yellow Stone Lutheran Church cemetery is where most of my mother's maternal Norwegian ancestors are buried. We always hit Yellow Stone Lake for ice cream.

Quicksand, has that always been there?... Leftsa is still a huge tradition. And my uncles still like that Lutifisk... I do not come close to comparing to my pioneer Norwegian Grandma. You Aunt's name was Lena? Doesn't get much more Norwegian than that. Love the Ole and Lena jokes too.

My aunt and uncle are celebrating their 50th this coming weekend. Have been thinking about attending but doubt I will, am trying to get ready for my son's wedding. The anniversary party is gonna be at that golf course in Argyle.

All my Norwegian people that I know of are democrat! Matter fact, think all my Wisconsin people are liberal. They wonder what happened to us --- me, my 3 siblings and mom!

They didn't die out completely in Greenland, those who mingled with the natives survived, but by the time contact was re-established, they were indistinguishable from the natives. 500 years of interbreeding with a population that outnumbers yours massively would tend to do that.

I'm sure that mini ice ages wiped out clans and possibly small villages. Iceland's climate can be cruel under normal conditions. A couple of bad growing seasons coupled with the inability to travel would certainly lead to great hardship.

Yea, sure. It was climate change, why not. The environmentalist wackos are blaming everything on it so why not. Oh darn, there were no cars and a lot fewer people then. Hmmmm, maybe the environmentalist are wrong???